You're Home
by Strawberry4evr
Summary: After the confrontation with the Volturi Edward seems agitated; a silent ghost haunting him. No one can quite work out why until he flees the Cullen home. Can Carlisle convince him to come back home? ONESHOT


**A/N: The inspiration for this oneshot was a different fanfic called Lasting Illusion by Mir Queen. Check them out! I really love their stories. Also, there is possibly one or two parts that won't make a lot of sense unless you've read my threeshot Silence. **

"It's over," They all breathed as the last of their friends left. "It's all over."

Carlisle Cullen smiled at his family, his eyes resting on each of them in turn. They were each sitting with their own pairing, and Renesmee was comfortably seated between them. Every face in the room showed nothing but happiness and relief that the threat of the Volturi had finally disappeared. All except one.

_Are you okay, son?_ Carlisle asked his first child, who flinched violently at the question. Everyone turned to him as he did. If he were human he would definitely be blushing. "Edward?" Carlisle asked out loud this time. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Edward smiled, but it was clear he was lying. "I just... I don't know."

"It seems too good to be true?" Emmett offered. "I feel like that."

"Yeah," Edward agreed, but it didn't seem like he agreed at all. Carlisle frowned.

A few weeks passed and yet Edward still seemed troubled. Only Carlisle noticed it however, that was until he started to intentionally seclude himself from everyone else. They got worried, but he refused to tell them what was troubling him, even though it was obvious that something was.

Emmett tried to ask him about, usually through his mind. But whenever he did, verbally or not, the outcome was the same. Edward flinched, then ran away.

"Have you noticed..." Rosalie muttered absent mindedly to the rest of the family some days later. Edward and Bella had left with their daughter some hours prior. "How Edward flinches every time someone talks to him through his power?"

A chorus of 'yes' went around the room at her question, but Carlisle stayed silent, pursing his lips against what he knew his most beautiful child would undoubtedly say next.

Rosalie nodded as if deep in thought, then muttered, "That's why I ask him a lot of questions."

"Edward?" Carlisle called through the closed door of his son's old bedroom. Bella walked up behind him.

"He's not here," She sighed sadly. "He jumped out the window a while ago. Not even Alice is sure where he went."

"Oh," Carlisle replied, not entirely surprised. It wasn't unlike Edward to go for a run when he was troubled. He would be back before dawn.

But a shiver went up his spine as he heard his talented daughter cry out, "No! Edward! No!"

"What's happening?" Jasper demanded, seizing his wife's wrists in an attempt to keep her still and calm her. Carlisle and Bella rushed into the room and stood in front of her.

Sobs wracked through Alice as she whispered, "He's going to join the Volturi."

The entire room went still at this revelation. "What?" Emmett hissed, "Are you sure?"

"No," Alice whispered, her eyes going glassy again. A sigh of relief went through the room. "It's not clear. He hasn't fully decided yet."

She sat still for hours, searching for Edward while the family watched her. "He's in the airport," She murmured at one point. "I can't tell which one; it's not Seattle. He's trying to decide where to go."

For hours they sat, waiting. When Alice didn't say anything for that time they were unsure whether or not Edward had made any new decisions, as her eyes remained unfocused. Finally she murmured, "He's gone to Rio. It will be dark when his plane lands. It just left."

"How dare he," Bella seethed, but the feeling she had when he first left her was creeping over her. His sudden departure was opening old wounds. Too many old wounds. Out of habit, her arms tightened around her middle. "How dare he just leave us just like that!"

"It's okay Bella," Esme reassured her newest daughter. "We'll get him back."

Nessie was crying, and Rosalie was trying to console her. But it wasn't working, as she was crying for her father. "Why did he leave?" She sobbed. "Is it because he was going to hit me?"

The thought swept over the Cullens. It was possible, but the incident was weeks ago. The thing that had been haunting Edward had started weeks before, just after the confrontation with the Volturi. "When can we leave, Alice?" Carlisle asks quietly.

"In about eighteen hours. When the plane lands it will have just gone dark and we'll have quite a few hours to talk to him..." She seemed deep in thought for a moment. "No. We can't go."

"What?" Jasper inquired. "Why not?"

"_We _can't go," Alice repeated. "Carlisle must go on his own... Well, we can go to Rio, but we can't go within Edward's hearing range. It's undecided.. but I can tell the outcome won't be good if he hears anyone except Carlisle."

"Then I'll go alone," The father of the family decided. He asked Alice to book tickets for the next safe flight, and the moment she left to do so he collapsed onto the sofa and buried his face in his hands. Something was hurting his son, and he wished he knew what.

Just about twenty four hours later, Carlisle landed in Rio alone. Alice had informed him that after he landed he would have about five hours to find Edward and get him back. Which might not be enough time, considering Edward's stubbornness. _"He'll be at the beach,"_ Alice had informed him. _"He'll be on some rocks_"

So that is where Carlisle went, towards the beach. Large rocks at one end have the waves crashing against them, and through the darkness the leader of the Cullen family can see a lithe form sitting on top of the largest rock, uncharacteristically hunched over. Pulling his phone out his pocket, he calls Alice, and she answered silently as planned. He placed the phone back in his pocket, keeping the call connected so the rest of the family can listen. It would save explaining at home.

"Son," Carlisle murmured as he sat on the rock next to his oldest Edward had forever been trapped in a young body. All the rest of his children had been at least eighteen when they were changed, so before Nessie came along he was often classed as the baby of the family by his brothers.

"Father," Edward replied curtly without looking at the blond doctor. "I don't have to ask what you're doing here. It won't work. I'm not going back."

"Not even for your wife and daughter?"

Carlisle watched as his son frowned, misery setting in the planes of his planes. "They're better off without me," He finally answered, and Carlisle raised an eyebrow. "You all are."

"And what put that ridiculous idea in your head?" The patriarch asked; he couldn't believe his son would actually think this, but he could tell Edward thought he was telling the truth.

Edward shrugged, still not looking at his father. "I just realised it. I don't know why I didn't before."

"Because its not true?" Carlisle suggested; his son shook his head.

"It _is,_" Edward sighed, his expression pained. "You don't need me, and I'm surprised you want me."

The older man thought for a moment. This only started after the confrontation with the Volturi over Edward's daughter. Alice said Edward was going to join them. Aro and Edward stood for ages at the Volturi's side of the battle field. Aro kept him there. Edward and _Aro_... "This is about Aro," He concluded, and Edward flinched violently at the sound of Aro's name.

"He..." Edward breathes, trying to find the right words. "He... He saw everything. He saw all my thoughts, and he saw all the thoughts of yours that I had heard. He liked how he could see so much more from me than he could from anyone else... I thought about how awful it was, how he liked being invasive, and he just went through my thoughts again, showing me I was no better than him."

A flash of anger went through Carlisle. How dare that monster put such thoughts in his son's head?! "You are much, _much_ better than that monster, son."

"I'm not," Edward defied, turning his back to Carlisle entirely. "He showed me. He showed how frustrated I was when I couldn't read Bella's mind. He showed me how it still frustrates me. He showed me how you've all hated me for it in the past. He... He showed me 1959. With Emmett. He showed me everything my father told me, and how you all probably thought that too, but hid it from me. He told me I would be so much better off with the Volturi, where I would be treasured for my gift rather than detested."

"We don't hate you, son," Carlisle soothed, placing a hand on his son's shoulder in comfort.

Edward turned fully, and Carlisle froze at the sight of his face. "But I hate _me,_" He whispered to his father.

"What happened to your face?" The blond breathed, reaching a hand up to trace to begginings of a scar on his son's right cheek. It was clearly teeth marks, and several of them. He had been bitten several times.

Again, Edward shrugged. "I can't self harm," He said nonchalantly. "I found a vampire here, so I got in the way of their hunt. They missed my throat by quite a bit."

"Edward..."

"I know."

"If I hadn't come after you..." Carlisle began, trying to change the subject for a moment. "What would you have done?"

With a sigh, Edward turned from his father again, burying his face in his knees. He hissed as his scar brushed across the denim, pain flashing through his face. "I was going to stay away from all of you for just over seventy years, and then I was going to see if I could find you and... If Nessie and you guys didn't want me in your lives then I could live with that."

"You'd really miss your daughter growing up because of something _Aro_ told you?" Carlisle decided to go a different rout. Being firm didn't come naturally to him, but he knew that this was the only way he could convince Edward to come home.

"I would," Edward decided, but Carlisle wasn't convinced. "It might be better if she hated me now, rather than later when she realises how repulsive I am."

"You are _not_ repulsive," Carlisle stated firmly. He was trying to keep calm on the outside, but on the inside he was seething. If Aro ever touched Edward again, he would kill him. Well, maybe not kill him, but harm him, certainly. "You are kind and smart and-"

"Invasive and sadistic," Edward finished. Carlisle gritted his teeth, but then something came to him.

"Yes, you are," A quiet collection of gasps sounded from the other end of the phone. "You are also stubborn, and masochistic, and even though you have a _wife _and a _daughter_ and a _ family, _you _insist_ on being alone. You are far too overprotective, almost to the point where it is painful for the rest of us."Carlisle was standing now, staring down at his son who's looked thoroughly shocked, the right side of his mouth twisted down where the scar cut through it. "But! We love you with these faults, not despite. You are our brother, and our son. You are generous and kind and fun when you want to be. Whenever you hear that one of us is in danger or in pain you help if you can, and offer comfort always. You are an excellent husband and an incredible father and we _love you. _Now, you are going to come with me, get on the plane that leaves in two hours and when we get home you are going to let Jasper take a look at your wounds and you are going to apologise to everyone. Okay?"

Edward stared at the figure towering over him; his father had never been this stern with him before. He didn't want to believe what Carlisle was saying, but he heard the truth in Carlisle's tone and in his thoughts. Nodding, slightly, he allowed the blond to pull him to his feet. The older man guided his son to the airport, not letting go of his arm. Alice had already booked his tickets back home, as if Carlisle didn't manage to find Edward, then he would have definitely heard his father's thoughts and fled Rio by the time the five hours were up.

"Edward!" Alice screamed, running out to greet her brother. But she stopped in her tracks at the sight of his face. He flinched; the venom from the bite felt like it was eating the very skin around the scars. "Oh my God," Alice murmured.

Jasper came striding into the front garden then, reaching for his brother's face and tilting it slightly, looking at the scar in the light of the rising sun. He hissed, a growl forming in his chest at the thought that his brother would get in the way of another vampire's hunt just to get hurt. "We need to get the venom out now, Carlisle. It's burning his face."

An hour later, the venom was out and the wound was sealing into obvious scars running in rough circles down the right side of his face. Bella hadn't seen him yet, as she was waiting for their daughter to wake up at the cottage. From what Alice said, however, they were both on their way with Jacob.

When they walked into the house Jake was carrying Nessie and Bella swept over to her husband immediately. "Edward," She murmured, tracing the scar lightly. Venom tears that would never fall formed in her eyes as she smiled at her husband. "You're still beautiful."

"Bella," Edward whispered, kissing his wife gently. Jake passed Nessie to Bella when she asked, and she passed her to Edward. "I'm so sorry."

"Don't be," Bella shushed, still smiling gently. "I'm just glad you're home."

Edward looked back at his family and then down at his daughter and wife. "So am I," He said decidedly. "So am I."


End file.
